


enough of anything

by Lire_Casander



Category: 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Uncle TK Is The Favorite, kids being kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-20
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:48:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24267685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lire_Casander/pseuds/Lire_Casander
Summary: when carlos offers to babysit his sister’s twins, he didn’t sign up for this hell
Relationships: Carlos Reyes/TK Strand
Comments: 2
Kudos: 138





	enough of anything

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kaitlia777](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaitlia777/gifts).



> Prompt: **TK helping Carlos babysit Carlos’s nieces and nephews.**
> 
> Title comes from _Peace_ by Ben Rector.
> 
> Beta'ed by the always amazing [meloingly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/meloingly). Thanks a lot for your help with this!

It had seemed a good idea, in the beginning, to accept babysitting Isabel’s twins. Roberto and Samuel are ten after all — old enough to be distracted with TV and some snacks that are forbidden at home while they all waited for TK to come back home from his shift. Carlos had thought he had it covered.

Carlos realizes his mistake about ten minutes into their afternoon, when the twins begin to fight over who has had the remote longer, and how unfair it is that Samuel can’t watch an action film just because Roberto only enjoys Disney movies. He’s moved to the kitchen to fetch a bottle of cold water and a beer for himself — not that he champions for drinking alcohol while he’s around his nephews, but this afternoon is proving to be more difficult by the second. Roberto and Samuel have been fighting over one thing or the other half of the time — homework, school, who’s caught Jessica’s eye first — and their uncle can’t take another round of arguments about how hot dogs are better than hamburgers if Roberto and Samuel decide they need to discuss that particular topic once again. Carlos is ready to begin screaming when the twins start fidgeting in their spots on the couch, and both reach for the remote at the same time, knocking the bowl half-full with popcorn over the floor.

“Enough, kids!” Carlos exclaims, coming from the kitchen with his beer in one hand and the water in the other, his fingers flexing around the cold bottles in frustration. “Can’t you just stay quiet for a while and enjoy a nice afternoon at your uncle’s instead of fighting all the freaking time?”

“You said a bad word,” Roberto points out, frowning at him. “I’m telling mom.”

“Yeah, we should tell mom!” Samuel agrees.

Carlos sighs, exasperated. Only his nephews would agree on snitching on him to his older sister. Sadly, the bliss of agreement doesn’t last long, for the kids begin fighting again about who should tell Isabel first.

“It should be me,” Roberto almost yells, his voice pitching up a notch or ten. Carlos just wants to throw something at a wall. “After all, I noticed it first!”

“But I was born first, I’m the oldest so it should be me!”

“Kids, kids, _stop_!” Carlos interrupts them. “I will tell your mother myself, just stop the bickering. Gosh, are you always fighting around your parents?”

The twins look down at their hands, and Carlos can tell they’re feeling ashamed, if their stance — their sudden slumped shoulders, the tension drained off their backs — is anything to go by. He would pay to not have to be the adult chastising them right now, but he knows how his sister gets when her children behave like this in public. And as much as he likes the idea of children being just that — free and able to express themselves — he can see why Isabel needed a break from her own twins. Those two could bear anyone down in an hour.

He saunters to the couch and offers them the water, shaking his head to himself for not having thought about bringing _two_ bottles. 

“I’ll get back with another water,” he promises. “Just don’t kill each other over this, okay?”

He’s making his way back to the kitchen when he hears the tingling of keys entering the lock on the front door, and TK’s joyful voice fills the silence. “I’m home! Who’s ready for a party?”

The twins squeal in delight — after all TK is their favorite uncle — and jump off the couch to greet him. TK beams at them as he opens his arms wide, scooping them both as best as he can while balancing his bag from work on a shoulder.

Carlos grabs the second bottle of water and makes his way back to the living room to find the three of them already cozy on the couch, TK holding the remote and Samuel and Roberto taking turns in talking to him, retelling their adventures since the last time they saw Uncle TK. He’s listening carefully, paying so much attention to their words, that it warms Carlos’s soul just to see the scene.

He pauses for a second in the doorway, drinking in the moment of peace TK has been able to bring to his house. It’s a constant, though, and Carlos is grateful to have TK’s presence in his life — even in the beginning, when things were rocky and Carlos hadn’t known exactly where they stood with each other, TK had been able to calm the bites of every sharp angle in Carlos’ existence, from the smallest ones to the biggest. Carlos is a better man just from having TK by his side, and he can only hope to become the same influence in TK’s life.

And it doesn’t hurt, either, to watch him so at ease with his nephews — with any kid, really — because Carlos has been thinking long-term for a while now and he sees himself in the future with TK, living in a house full of laughter and youth and freedom and happiness, with muffled socked steps running around the floor and algebra books scattered throughout the desks and dress-shopping trips. Carlos wants it all with TK, but he’s just afraid he’s going too fast if he proposes to his boyfriend, even after a year and a half of dating.

“Uncle Carlos,” Roberto calls for him. “Come here, Uncle TK was about to tell us about his day at the station!”

“Actually,” TK chuckles as he starts to get up from the couch. “I should take the bag to the bedroom and take a shower. Then I can tell you all about the adventures I went on today. But I’m sure Uncle Carlos here has the best stories to tell!”

“Uncle Carlos’ life is _boring_ ,” Samuel says in a whisper that reaches Carlos’ ears. “He’s just a cop. You’re the cool uncle! You’re a firefighter!”

“Yes, you are!” Roberto agrees. Carlos shakes his head — leave it to his nephews to agree on him being the boring one out of their uncles.

“I should go, now,” TK insists. “Don’t give your uncle a bad time, okay? I know you two can be a handful! Promise me.”

“Promise,” the twins echo one another as TK grabs the bag left on the floor and walks toward Carlos. When he reaches Carlos, TK leans in and drops a sweet and short kiss on his cheek.

“Hello, sweetie,” he greets.

“Hello, tiger,” Carlos mutters, mimicking the kiss and grasping at TK’s waistband in what he hopes is a stealthy way. It evidently isn’t, because the twins start groaning and protesting. “Great, as if they needed some more ammo to use against me.”

“They love you,” TK assures him. “But this is a bad cop, good cop kinda situation. And you’re the bad cop. I’m just cool.”

“Go shower, cool kid,” Carlos jokes. “You smell.”

“You love it.”

“Yeah, I do.”

Carlos watches as TK disappears into the bedroom before going back to his nephews. The twins are looking up at him with a gleam in their eyes that Carlos has come to recognize as dangerous. “What,” he says, not even a question.

“When are you going to get married?” Samuel asks innocently. “Mom says you should propose soon or else.”

“Or else?” Carlos quirks an eyebrow at him. 

“I think she means that you’re running out of time,” Roberto adds. “She’s always saying that TK is a good man for you, Uncle Carlos. So, when are you going to get married?”

Carlos smiles softly at the kids, an idea forming in his mind. Seeing how his nephews only seem to agree when it comes to TK Strand, maybe he could use that to his advantage.

“Want to help me out with that?” he offers.

“Help you out?” both kids quip in.

“I might need a lot of help to set up the perfect date to ask Uncle TK to become my husband,” he whispers to them, reveling in the way they both seem to light up. “I was hoping you could help me with that!”

“I have a lot of ideas!” Roberto says, Samuel nodding his head excitedly. “You have to take him to Popeye’s!”

“Popeye’s, huh?”

“And then bowling at the mall!” Samuel adds. “Uncle TK loves bowling.”

“That he does,” Carlos agrees. “So, can I count on you to plan this perfect moment?”

“Uncle Carlos!” both kids exclaim, their tone so similar to their mother’s that it fills Carlos with a warmth he doesn’t want to lose ever. “Who are you taking us for?”

“It’s settled, then.” Carlos ruffles their hair as they bob their heads up and down, talking excitedly about what’s to come. “And maybe you could bear the rings at our wedding.”

“That’s a task for one, and we’re two,” Samuel frowns at him. “It should be me, of course!”

“No, it should be me!”

 _Too much for blissful calm_ , Carlos thinks, shaking his head. With a sigh, he reaches for the remote and turns the sound on the TV up a few bars, just to drown the kids’ arguments for a little while.

It is going to be fine, he knows that, even if he has to split the rings into different cushions so his nephews can have the same amount of protagonism at the wedding the three of them will be planning.


End file.
